ANDREW NIKOLIC MP: Can I just say thank you for coming along, and how wonderful it is to welcome the Prime Minister back to Bass. The last time the Prime Minister was here the unemployment rate in Tasmania had an eight in front of it. And now two years since the last election, it has got a six in front of it.
And as we have walked through town in Launceston some of the stories that we have been getting highlight the fact that the economic tide is rising for Tasmania. One of the business people told us that they have just had their best month in five years. The Cray Boat captain that we have just come off is now getting twice the price for his crayfish than he was getting two years ago by virtue of the fact that there is increased demand with the trifecta of free trade agreement that Minister Andrew Robb has negotiated. So I am really bullish about Tasmania's future and I am really pleased to see the Prime Minister here talking about how we can build on successes to date.
Those strategic investments that we have made with $203 million to the Tasmanian freight equalisation scheme, $60 million for irrigation schemes which will enable us to produce much more in land that is currently not fit for too much use, 95 per cent certainty through those irrigation schemes will be really helpful. So, Prime Minister thank you so much for coming to Launceston.
Thank you so much for backing our strategic future and without further ado, over to you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much Andrew. It is great to be in Launceston. I have had a great couple of days in Tasmania and still some things to do yet. I just want to echo what Andrew said about the optimism in the State.
This is the greatest time, the most exciting time to be an Australian. It's the most exciting time to be a Tasmanian. The opportunities for this State, which has always been geared to export, whether it's exporting services or goods or food or manufactures, the opportunities for this State have never been greater.
And you are starting to see that in improving employment, as Andrew said, greater optimism. The China/Australia Free Trade Agreement alone is already seeing big increases in export orders from Tasmania. Right across the State, I've met people who are exporting, whose numbers are improving dramatically. So this is a time of great opportunity and the innovation, the initiative, the enterprise of Tasmanians, led by a great Premier in Will Hodgman, is going to take this State to greater heights. So I'm thrilled to be here. Thrilled to be in this very exciting State.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister the organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir is hosting its annual conference entitled 'Innocent until proven Muslim'. It will address the quote ‘Australian Government's relentless barrage and [inaudible] harassment of the Muslim community.’ Is that a fair description of your Government's behaviour and should that organisation be banned?
PRIME MINISTER: Let me just say that every organisation has to comply with the law. And as you know, we have a number of laws which regulate activities in this area, in this national security area. I will say no more about that specific organisation than that.
Let me say, however, that our laws are absolutely focused on ensuring that we have a harmonious multicultural society. We are the most successful multicultural nation in the world. And that is based on mutual respect. And that word mutual is very important. Respect is a two-way street. And so that is why our greatest allies in the battle against extremist - extremism in the sense of terrorism, violent extremism, our greatest allies are in fact the Muslim community who are appalled by the incidence of terrorism and extremism from their numbers. So there are obviously elements that seek to do our country harm and all I can say is that the law will apply to them with full and stern rigour.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister is the $38 million promise...
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, start again.
JOURNALIST: Is the $38 million promised for the Hobart runway extension guaranteed. Is the money, is it warranted to be spent given there appears to be no international carriers preparing to fly directly to Hobart?
PRIME MINISTER: The commitment to the runway is there and of course you may have noted yesterday that it was highlighted in the - in our press conference with Greg Hunt about the new icebreaker for the Antarctic Division, because of course, supporting, greater aerial support to our efforts in Antarctica, of course, depend on improving, enabling bigger planes to land at Hobart as well. So there are many aspects to that investment.
JOURNALIST: With your comments on Gonski funding this morning, are you leaving open the possibility of the Federal Government restoring some of the education funding to State and Territories that were scaled back in 2014?
PRIME MINISTER: Can I just say to you that the Labor Government, the previous Labor Government, without wanting to inject an unduly partisan note in this otherwise harmonious press conference, just as a matter of fact , the previous Labor Government did not provide funding for years five and six of Gonski. They talked about it but they didn't allow the funding for it.
So there are big challenges with every aspect of the budget given the deficit situation we're in. Having said that Federal Government funding on schools is increasing year on year. Federal Government funding for schools in Tasmania is increasing. And we are very committed to ensuring that we get better educational outcomes for all our children, whichever system in which they are educated.
You know, the measure of a successful education policy is not simply the money that's been spent. In fact, that's not much of a measure at all. The measure is the educational outcomes.
We've got to ensure that by supporting quality teachers, by supporting a rigorous curriculum approach, we've got to ensure that we get the right outcomes.
Over the years, there've been a lot of measures, perhaps well intentioned, that have seen more money spent on school education while standards actually went backwards. So let's focus on the outcome. That's what the new minister Simon Birmingham and indeed his predecessor Christopher Pyne were very keenly interested in.
JOURNALIST: You will consider those final two years in funding?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we will always be focused on ensuring that subject to the constraints of a budget, subject to the constraints of affordability, that we ensure that the resources as far as, we can, the resources that we apply to education, whether it's in schools or higher education, is getting the right outcomes and that is to say, improving standards outcomes from our students.
JOURNALIST: When does the Federal Government release its short list of potential sites for a nuclear waste dump in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: That will be released - I see there's been some speculation in the press. It will be released in due course. And Minister Frydenberg will have more to say that in due course.
JOURNALIST: Is the vocational training system in crisis given student fees have doubled?
PRIME MINISTER: I think - that's not a word I would use, right. But I would say that there has been, again, without - again, without wanting to be tiresomely partisan or political, the fact is, the Labor Party opened up the vocational training system, the result of that was a great many courses provided that were poor in terms of the quality of the course. Poor in terms of the selection of the students. And the consequence of this has been that students have had - have got poor value and of course, the government has been left with a lot of loans to students who didn't even complete the courses, whether they were good courses or not.
It's been - it has been a shambles. It was robustly criticized from - well, as late as early 2013. Labor did not address it. And we have been, as usual, cleaning up the mess so there's been a number of changes made already. You've heard Luke Hartsuyker and Simon Birmingham talk about that just in the last day.
We've made a number of changes and we're monitoring the situation and we'll make further ones. The critical thing is that the courses offered are of high quality, that students who do the courses, do so in the expectation that they'll complete them and as a consequence, the assistance, the loans that are provided by the government will, in due course, be repaid.
But obviously, people - we don't want to continue to subsidize what has turned out to be in many cases very speculative and poor-quality courses being offered.
So on that note, thank you all very much. It's wonderful to be here in Tasmania, in Launceston, with Andrew.
I have just been learning a lot about the desilting of the river here. This is very important work. It's been terrific to see the passion and commitment of Andrew and of all the people here in Launceston. This is really one of Australia's most beautiful cities and it's always a delight to be here.
Thanks very much.